The council's equality and inclusion commitment to you

The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous legislation and created a single legal framework, providing clearer, streamlined law that is more effective at tackling disadvantage and discrimination.  This Act protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.

Protected characteristics

The Act protects us from being treated less favourably because of certain characteristics. These are known as protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Sex
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or Belief
• Sexual Orientation

The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.

The Public Sector Equality Duty, which is set out in the Equality Act 2010, requires us to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• foster good relations between people from different groups

It describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The Equality Act also says that public bodies must pay 'due regard' to equality. This means that we must:

• remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
• take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people

The Act also states that meeting different needs involves taking steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities.

It states that compliance with the duty may involve treating some people more favourably than others.

Undertaking Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) on new and/or revised policies or services is an effective way of identifying any positive or negative impact that the change may have on different people, according to their protected characteristics. This enables us to demonstrate that we have paid 'due regard' in coming to our decisions.

The law does not mean that no changes can be made, even if they have a negative effect on people. However, we must demonstrate that we have considered the impact that could happen and what steps we have put in place to mitigate against any negative impacts.

Our EIAs are available on our Policies and Procedures database by searching for Equality Impact Assessments.

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish our equality information on an annual basis. This includes demonstrating to you how we are delivering against our corporate equality objectives. We reviewed our equality objectives in March 2026 and between now and 2028 we will:

1. Deliver on the corporate inclusion plan
2. Embed the Public Sector Equality Duty principles into our service delivery, commissioning and contract management processes
3. Reduce underrepresentation in service provision and evidence improved impact on service users with protected characteristics

You can read the Council’s Equality and Inclusion vision statement below:

SCC's equality and inclusion statement 2026 - 2028

Suffolk County Council is committed to being an inclusive organisation and to delivering accessible, fair and equitable services that meet the diverse needs of our communities. We recognise that people can experience our services differently and that inequality and underrepresentation can exist in access, experience and outcomes. We are committed to understanding and addressing these differences, so everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit from what we provide.

We value both our shared and diverse identities and will promote a culture of inclusion that recognises difference, challenges barriers and supports those who experience disadvantage or exclusion. Inclusion is everyone’s responsibility, and equality must be embedded in the design, delivery and evaluation of our services, as well as in our workplaces and partnerships.

We are committed to these principles and fulfilling our duties under the Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty and our WE ASPIRE Values. This includes using data, insight and lived experience to identify and address underrepresentation, eliminate discrimination and improve outcomes for service users.

Through commissioning and partnership working, we will co‑produce inclusive solutions with communities, ensuring all community voices are actively sought and valued. We will remove barriers to access, make reasonable adjustments and continuously improve how services respond to different needs.

We will hold ourselves accountable by monitoring impact, reporting progress and taking action to demonstrate how Suffolk County Council is tackling inequality, reducing underrepresentation and delivering inclusive, person‑centred services for people across Suffolk.

Equality reports

Our published equality reports provide information about the: 

• profile of our workforce
• activities that have been undertaken across the organisation in the last year to support our equality objectives and embed equalities into all areas of work

Download our equality reports:

• Workforce Equality Report 2023 (PDF, 2MB)

Accessibility

Read about how we make the information on our website as accessible as possible. 

Interpreting and translating services

Suffolk County Council use INTRAN to provide our translation and interpreting services.

We use interpreters or translate information where someone would be at risk if they are unable to understand English. In other situations we will do so where appropriate and in response to identified need.